Just as the competitive and perfectionist tendencies of top athletes compel them to relive
losses more often than wins, the uncompromising qualities of football fans force them to recall
details of defeats more easily than victories.

Losses stick in the system, gnawing at the mind with the what-went-wrongs and
what-could-have-beens. Ohio State fans remember the specific, sickening taste of losing to Michigan
State in 1998.

The sweet flavor of rolling over Michigan two weeks later is less memorable.

Those memories burn deeper into the brain when a bowl game is a fan's raison d'etre. A bowl is
the song playing during a season's closing credits, the final impression before spring practice
begins.

As wonderfully intoxicating as Ohio State's 31-24, double-overtime win against Miami in the
2003

Fiesta Bowl was for its fans, a loss in Tempe, Ariz., would have created a downward spiral of
emotion that, for some, would not have hit bottom even today.

Or consider the fallout from the loss to Florida in the 2007 BCS title game. You are dreaming if
you think a win would have lifted the Buckeyes' national reputation to the extreme that the 41-14
loss sunk it into the muck.

And because bowls become the final sentence in a season's final chapter, losses bring the
additional baggage of peripherals moving front and center and staying there.

Case in point: The 2000 Buckeyes lost the Outback Bowl to South Carolina 24-7, and Gamecocks
running back Ryan Brewer, Ohio's Mr. Football in 1998 from Troy whom OSU did not heavily recruit,
accounted for 214 all-purpose yards and three touchdowns. Brewer became the bane of coach John
Cooper's existence. Cooper lost his job less than 24 hours after the loss, and contributing to his
firing was the drama surrounding the lead-up to the game, when player squabbles and other assorted
issues made news.

Change the outcome to 31-24 in favor of Ohio State and Brewer barely registers on the minds of
Buckeyes fans, the off-the-field issues fade into vapor and Cooper likely keeps his job.

Jim Tressel's job at Ohio State is not in jeopardy, but a loss to Arkansas today hurts the
coach's legacy more than a win helps it, if only because of the turmoil that has surrounded the
program the past two weeks. Tressel, and his team, need a win to help wipe away the stain of a bowl
season marked with controversy.

There is some weight to the belief that, because of the willingness to defer the suspensions of
six Buckeyes until next season and allow those players to take part in the Sugar Bowl, Ohio State
loses the perception game even if it defeats the Razorbacks. But the Buckeyes should be willing to
take that chance, because the alternative is that a loss will be forever linked to suspensions,
tattoos and the sale of gold pants.

Defeat Arkansas, and 25 years from now few will remember that quarterback Terrelle Pryor and
five other teammates were at the center of a storm before the Sugar Bowl.

Another example: Maurice Clarett is a marked man in Columbus, mostly for his behavior
after Ohio State defeated Miami to become 2002 national champions. But because the former
OSU tailback helped the Buckeyes win the Fiesta Bowl he gets a pass - his only pass - among those
who correctly insist that the national title does not happen without him.

Imagine if Ohio State had lost that game? Clarett's already tarnished reputation would be
further diminished because of his pregame comments about the university not looking out for his
best interests. A loss damages all it touches and demonizes those whose character already was in
question.

So today's game, even more than most, is about how this OSU team will be remembered down the
road more than how it will be viewed in the coming days. From that standpoint, Tressel and the
suspended Buckeyes will be coaching and playing to cover up, if not erase, a negative stigma
associated with the 2010 season.

Burnt endings are part of the Ohio State lore. Take your pick: 2006 season ruined by Florida;
1979 ruined by Southern California; 1975 ruined by UCLA; 1970 ruined by Stanford. These are a lot
of ruins, not even counting regular-season endings against Michigan.

The common thread in a handful of those bowl losses was that Woody Hayes overworked his players
to the point they either burned out or morale took a major hit during bowl preparations. Don't
think for a minute those negatives would be recalled if the Buckeyes had won a few more of those
games.

So it is with this Sugar Bowl. For all the fuss over whether the suspended players should sit
out the game, the hue and cry will not last the test of time if the Buckeyes win against Arkansas.
With a defeat, however, the "L" will stand not just for Loss but for Legacy. And not a favorable
one at that.